Also known as Morse’s Teas, the building has stood guard at this location since 1841, welcoming visitors to the inner city. Being located at the confluence of Upper Water and Hollis Streets, the building necessarily has a trapezoidal footprint. Originally built as a four storey stone building, the upper two brick storeys were added following a fire in 1927. The brick storeys actually detract from the appearance of the building, with its dark colored ironstone highlighted by very heavy and prominent light grey granite window lintels, sills and quoins, with more quoins at the building's corners.
The original building on this site was the Jerusalem Coffee House, operated from a former residence built in 1753. When it burned in 1837 it supplied many of the stones used to build this edifice in 1845. Harkening back to the Jerusalem Coffee House, this building, built as a warehouse, came to be known as the Jerusalem Warehouse. In 1855, one J.S. MacLean, a grocer who specialized in teas, bought the building. In 1910, Maclean sold the business to O.E. Smith, president of J.E. Morse and Company Ltd. It was Smith who began to blend and package teas in the building, the business becoming
Canada's first tea company. Hence, the building came to be known as the Morse Tea Building, or, more commonly, Morse’s Teas.
Today the ground floor is occupied by the Baton Rouge Bar & Grill, the upper floors, predominantly office space.
Jerusalem Warehouse
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
Morse’s Teas is a six-storey brick and stone commercial property located on Hollis Street, in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. A landmark of the downtown, the large trapezoidal building is one of Halifax’s oldest commercial properties and is situated on the northern end of the block bounded by Hollis, Duke and Water Streets. The designation extends to the building and the land it occupies.
HERITAGE VALUE
Morse’s Teas is valued for its association with early trade in Halifax, its associations to J.S. MacLean and J.E. Morse and Company Ltd. and for its Georgian architectural features. It is also valued as Canada’s first tea company and for its association with Halifax’s conservation awakening.
The building was constructed in 1841 for David & Edward Starr and Co. and served as a warehouse for several downtown businesses. It was known locally then as Jerusalem Warehouse, a name that hearkened back to when the site was occupied by the Jerusalem Coffee House. The coffee house had operated for nearly a century in the former residence of Thomas Saul, a British army agent from Lancashire, England. Saul’s house dated to 1753 but it was destroyed by fire in 1837. Many of the stones used in Morse’s Teas were salvaged from the ruined building.
In 1855, J.S. MacLean, a New York businessman, purchased the building and based his grocery store there. Importing products from overseas, his business specialized in tea, which he transported in small sailing vessels and horse-drawn wagons to communities throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Respected not only for his successful business, MacLean later became president of the Bank of Nova Scotia. After 30 years in business, he sold the building to another local merchant, Cyril H. Gorham, and in 1910, Gorham sold it to O.E. Smith, president of J.E. Morse and Company Ltd.
Under Smith’s direction, tea was blended, packaged and shipped to wholesalers and retailers, establishing the property as Canada’s first tea business. Most sales were to Atlantic Canada though tea was also shipped to destinations in the U.S. and West Indies. Beyond his business endeavours, Smith was also a philanthropist and donated sums of money to local hospitals and Dalhousie University. The building underwent several changes after sustaining damage from a fire in 1927: the loading doors were relocated from the north and east walls to the west side of the building, two additional storeys were constructed and the pitched roof was replaced with a flat roof.
The building remained in the Smith family until the late 1970s. In 1973, the building was threatened with demolition to make way for a proposed superhighway but Halifax City Council saved the building along with several other heritage structures in the vicinity. In 1989, Morse’s Teas became part of the campus for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). In 2004, a Toronto-based developer purchased the property.
Architecturally, Morse’s Teas has retained elements of the Georgian style, which include its symmetrical façade, six-over-six windows with quoins and stone and brick construction. It has maintained its original masonry, a feature also mirrored in other historic properties along Halifax’s waterfront. Built out of native ironstone with granite trim similar to other warehouse buildings in the area, the large rectangular building boasts similar unadorned construction techniques. It initially stood just four storeys tall, but two storeys were added following a fire in 1927. On the south side of the building, the outline of the former pitched roof is visible. The building is distinguished by its unusual trapezoidal footprint.
From Historic Places Canada